Device for developing gas under pressure from liquefied gases



Aug. 19,1924. 5 1,505,095

P. HE.YLANDT DEVICE F OR DEVELOPING. GAS UNDER PRESSURE FROM LIQUEFIED GASES Filed Jan. 5, 1921 Wm/75 5." m A! sure automatically generated within the apmama we 1924" 1,505,095 PATENT OFFICE.

PAUL HEYLANDT, 0'1? lBERLIN-SUDENDE, GERMANY.

DEVICE FOR DEVELOPING GAS UNDER PRESSURE FROM LIQUEFIED GASES.

Application filed January 3, 1921. Serial No. $34,823.

To all whom it may concern:

' Be it known that I, PAUL HEYLANDT, a citizen of the German Republic, residing at Berlin-Sudende, Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Devices for Developing Gas Under Pressure from Liquefied Gases, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a device for supplying industrial establishments with large quantities of oxygen or other liquefiable gases without involving the carriage of steel cylinders or bottles, and for developing gas under pressure from liquefied gases, the principal object of the invention being to provide an apparatus in which the liquefied gas may be stored and transported for long distances and the gas delivered under presparatus,

llt has heretofore been considered impossible to make vessels capable of containing several-thousand litres of liquids, the temperatures of which are as low as those of liquid oxygen, nitrogen etc., sufficiently proof against the reception of warmth from without and against the evaporation losses entailed thereby, and at the same time to make their resistance to pressure'such that they would withstanda pressure ashlgh as that required for autogenous cutting, i. e. a pressure of 8 atmospheres or more. One of the-objects, therefore, of the present invention is to provide a compara- 'tively' simple device which is sufliciently protected against loss of cold and is strong enough to hold three hundred to severalthousand kilograms of liquefied gas and-to resist an internal pressure of-over fifteen atmospheres, whereby industrial establishments may be supplied with large quanti ties of liquefied gases which can be taken in gaseous form, and at the required operating pressure, directly from the vessel in which it was transported, without the aid of discharging compressors.

The drawings accompanying and forming part of this specification illustrate diagrammatically a vertical section of an apparatus constructed in accordance with the present invention.

The vessel consists of an internal vessel 72 of metal into which the liquid oxygen is introduced through the inlet valve 1) from an air-liquefying apparatus (not shown). During the inflow of the liquid oxygen the valves d and a have to be kept open. The internal vessel It is fixed in the middle of the enveloping vessel Z. The space between it and Z is filled with a non-oxidizable substance such as slag-wool. By using slagwool as an insulatingmaterial the evaporation of the liquid oxygen etc. is sufficientlyreduced for practical purposes. a is a discharge valve through which liquefied gas may be taken from the reservoir h. iVhen' liquefied gas is to be extracted, the discharge valve a is opened and the valves 6, c, d and e are kept closed. To take non-compressed gas from the vessel, the valves a and 03 are both opened, while the valves Z), 0 and e are closed. Finally, gas at a pressure up to several atmospheres can be discharged by opening 0 and c while keepinga, be and (Z closed. In the instance last mentioned the liquefied gas rises through the ascension pipe in the vessel it to the valve 0 and flows through, and evaporates in, the the evaporating coil 2' which consists of one or two spirals and lies adjacent to the inner or outer surface of the enveloping vessel Z. The liquefied gas can be taken in a gaseous state in any desired quantitites at the required working pressure (2 to 15 atmospheres) from the valve 6. By providing two valves 0 and 0 through which the fluid flows one after the other in the same direction, 0 being passed chiefly by liquid and 6 only by gas, the working pressure can easily be regulated.

The cold liberated during evaporation is transferred by the coil 2' to the envelope Z and the insulating substance is in the space between the outer and inner vessels and is thus stored in the non-oxidizablc insulation during the time in which the pressure is produced. By this storage of cold in the slag-wool the evaporation of oxygen that subsequently takes placewhen the operations are stopped is considerably reduced. A pressure gauge f and a safety valve 9 are connected to the gas space above the liquid.

The whole equipment is adapted to be v tive substitute (permitting-of divers uses) for the large gas sjgorage vessels orco-called gasometers now generally used for oxygen,

nltrogen, hydrogen because, while taking up much less space, the equipment has a capac- I ity which, in conformity with the respective volumes of the gases in their liquefied and gaseous states, is about 8.00 times as great; for one litre of liquid oxygen when evaporated to a gas of atmospheric pressure will make at 0 or 14 or 27 about 790, 830 or 87 0 litres respectively of oxygen gas. The corresponding figures for a litre of liquid nitrogen are 640, 670 or 700 litres of nitrogen gas.

For the same reason the apparatus will,

when used as a carrying vessel, save the greatest part of the freight charges incurred by sending compressed gas in steel bottles.

Again, if the new process is employed for the production of gas under pressure the same vessel which was first used at the gas producing factory for gathering the liquefied gas, as for example the liquid oxygen,

' and then served as a carrying vessel, will also serve as an automatic ,gas producing plant at the point of consumption. v

When used for this purpose the vessel, after its arrival at the place of consumption, is first connected to the gas consuming apparatus, say, to the autogenous welding and cutting apparatus. The valve 6 is opened only when, by the automatic evaporation of the liquid oxygen, the pressure in the interior vessel has risen to the pressure required for operation. The excess of pressure is reduced and maintained at the proper operating pressure by corresponding adjust ments of the valves 0 and c. If gas 1s to be supplied at several points of operation at different pressures a corresponding number of reduction valves are provided in the supply pipe behind the valve 6. By this arrangement the carrying about of steel bottles eontaininghighly compressed gas is renwarmest zone, causes the flow of gas to be uniform and at 'a uniform pressure. In other words, as soon as the pressure within the vessel Jr has, owin to the natural eva oration of the liquefie gas, risen to the esired operating pressure,.the valves 0 and e are opened sufliciently to deliver the as at the same pressure, it being understoo that much as the pressure is produced b when passing through valve 0' it is San al- 'most entirely liquid form. However, as 'it begins to ascend through the coil it will become. more and more aseous until it reaches the warmest Zone w ierein the valve e adjusted for that pressure, provided that.

the operation is not started until the desired pressure is reached within the vessel h. Any tendency to undue increase in pressure is offset by the continually enlarging space above the liquid in the vessel It due to the escape of gas through the valve 0, and to the fact above stated, that as the pressure increases evaporation decreases, and inasevaporation, with any material increase 1n pressure there must comes time when there is practically .no evaporation, and therefore the pressure ceases to rise. Furthermore, at

the. close of operations suflicient cold has been transferred to the insulating material by the expansion of the gas in the coils i to prevent any substantial evaporation in .the vessel h, thereby preventing any dangerous rise in not in use.

The novelty'of the process and its technical advantages for industrial purposes pressure when the apparatus is -may be epitomized as follows:

In the gas-producing factory, as in theoxygen factory, the oxygen is no longer produced in a gaseous form but in a liquid form and sent in this state over long distances to the consumer where it is converted into gas of a sufiicient operating pressure and consumed. By this means the high cost of the large gas vessels, gas meters, filling compressors, and steel bottles, in addition to the operating cost, are saved, and on account of the great reduction of space andweight the current cost of freight amounts to less than one half of the cost of the carriage of the steel bottles employed hitherto.

I claim:

1. A portable device for storing and transporting liquefied gas, comprising an internal metal vessel adapted to hold a liquefied gas, an envelope of insulating material adapted to prevent the radiation of cold from, and the absorption of warmth by, the said vessel, an inlet for introducing liquefied gas into the vessel, a charging valve controlling the said inlet, a dischar e pipe leading from the said vessel to t e exterior, a discharge valve controlling the discharge pipe, a passage leading from the vessel into the discharge pipe, anda valve controlling the said passage.

- 2. A portable device for storing and transporting liquefied gas, comprisin an internal metal vessel adapted to ho d a and means for discharging the liquefied gas discharge to the. exterior, adisch'argevalve controlling in a gaseous state at a high pressure 'con sisting ofa passage leading from the interior of 'the vessel and lying adjacent to the said envelope, a valve at the of the said passage and a valve at the end of the said passage. I

3. A portable device for storing and transporting liquefied gas, comprisin an internal metal vessel adapted to .ho d a liquefied gas, an envelope of insulating material adapted to prevent the radiation of cold from, and the absorption oi Warmth by, the said vessel, an inlet forintroducing liquefied gas into the vessel, a charging valve controlling the said inlet, a pipe leading from the said vessel thevdischarge pipe, a passage leading from the vessel into the discharge pipe, a valve controlling the said passage, and means for discharging the liquefied gas in'a gaseous state at a high pressure consisting of a passage leading. from the interior of the vessel and lying adjacent to-the said envelope, a valve at the beginnin of the said passage and-a valve at the en of the said passage.

'4. A device for supplying and automatically generating gas at a predetermined operating pressure comprising an internal metal vessel adapted to hold a liquefied gas, a charging inlet for introducing the liquefied gas into the said vessel, an envelope of insulating material adapted to 'prevent the radiation of cold from, and the absorption of Warmth by, the said vessel, and means for dischar ing the gas ina gaseous state at the require operating pressure after the pressure in the vessel has risen to sald operating pressure byevaporation of the liquefied gas, said means comprising a discharge passage leading from the interior of the vessel and windin round the said envelope, and valves at t e beginning and end of the said passage for regulatin the pressure of the gas at the point. of disc arge.

5. A device for supplying and automatically generating gas at a predetermined operating pressure comprising an internal metal vessel adapted to hold a liquefied gas, a charging'inlet for introducing the liquid gas into the said vessel, an envelope of insulating material adapted toprevent the radiation of cold from, and the absorption of warmth by the said vessel, and means for discharging the gas in av gaseous state at the required operating pressure'after the pressure in .the vessel has risen. to said operating pressure by evaporation of the liquefied gas, said means comprising a discharge passage leading from the interior of the vessel and winding round the said envelope, valves atthe beginning and end of the said passage for regulatin the pressure of the gas at the poin" .0 discharge, a by-pass for leading the 'asfrom he vessel into the said dischar e passage, and a valve controlling the said liy-pass.

6. A device for supplying and automatically generating gas at a predetermined operating-pressure comprising an internal metal vessel adapted to hold a liquefied gas, a. charging inlet-for introducing the-liquefied gas into said vessel, an envelope of insulating material adapted to prevent the radiation of cold from, and the absorption of warmth by the said/vessel, and means for discharging the gas in a gaseous state at the required operating pressure after the pressure in the vessel has risen to said operating pressure by evaporation of the liquefied gas, and for transferring the cold of the li uid and evaporating gas to the envelop o insulating materiahsaid means compris' a spiral pipe leading from the saidv vesse and passing adjacent to the said envelope, substantially as described.

7. In combination with a device of the kind described in claim 2, a distributin pipe connected to the discharge passage, an reduction valves forsupplyin gas simul- .taheously at various pressures om the said distributing pipe. I In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two witnesses.

. PAUL HEYLANDT.

Witnesses:

SEEOK, Max JAnmwsKI. 

